The Issaquah Schools Foundation is saying goodbye to an influential member later this month.

Issaquah Schools Foundation Executive Director Robin Callahan is taking her passion for helping school districts to the national level as she is set to become the executive director of the National Schools Foundation Association, or NSFA. Issaquah Schools Foundation Development Director KayLee Jaech will step into Callahan’s shoes as interim executive director until a new person is found for the job.

The Issaquah Schools Foundation, established in 1987, helps to identify need in the Issaquah School District, and then find the finances, volunteers and in-kind resources to fill those needs. The foundation funds numerous programs to encourage academic success, aid low-income students and help young learners along their career path.

During her 14 years at the helm of the foundation, and three years as a board member before that, Callahan has worked to fulfill the foundation’s mission of, in her words, “connecting community resources with students so that our students can fulfill their potential.”

Callahan said that Issaquah’s reputation as a predominantly wealthy community makes people forget that there is still a large group of people who are struggling financially. In a city with such a high cost of living, she said, it is especially hard for low-income families to afford housing and other basic needs, causing “huge gaps” between the haves and the have-nots. This is perhaps most noticeable in the classroom.

“It is hard to not have resources in a community where your perception is that almost everyone else does,” Callahan said.

The Issaquah Schools Foundation reaches out to these students through programs such as the Breakfast Bar Program, which gives students with a healthy first meal of the day in one of the only school districts in the state that doesn’t provide free and reduced breakfast.

“[Low-income students] can stand out more, be stigmatized more,” Jaech said. “We make sure that our programs are done in a way that doesn’t stigmatize them further.”

The foundation reaches out not only to kids, but to new teachers adjusting to an expensive new home city with welcome kits full of free coupons for local businesses.

“We focus on how to send the message to teachers that they’re valued,” Callahan said.

Jaech said that during the past 14 years, Callahan has “grown this organization. She stepped in when it was a small foundation and [since then] it has grown to raising $1.5 million per year.”

However, Callahan maintains that she could not have done any of this without the help of the foundation’s board, the school district and the donors.

“This is a ‘we’ effort,” she stressed.

The one thing Callahan said she does take credit for is “having a vision and helping other people to see that vision.” She has traveled around to other school districts and collected ideas that would work for Issaquah, such as the VOICE mentor program, which partners students in need of an academic boost with local volunteers who act as mentors.

In return, the Issaquah Schools Foundation has been an innovator of ideas, such as the Technology, Education and Literacy in Schools program (TEALS); according to Callahan, Issaquah was “the first foundation to get behind” TEALS, which has now spread across the country. Through TEALS, the foundation pays a stipend to Microsoft employees who come to assist computer science teachers in local schools, as a way to make up for the shortage of computer science teachers.

“It has been innovative, a perfect example of a public-private partnership,” Callahan said. She said that the foundation often looks for ways to “bridge the gap” of funding in the school district, calling this practice “small investment, big impact.”

Now on the national stage, Callahan will have an even greater pool to draw from and reach out to when spreading ideas.

“I’m really excited to take what we’ve learned here and share it,” she said.

She added that the opportunity to “help every school foundation fill its potential” is her “dream job.” To give an idea of the scope of her new position, 66 schools foundations from Washington state alone belong to the national organization.

Though the national foundation is based out of Illinois, Callahan will be able to work without having to move away from Issaquah, something of which she is extremely grateful.

“I love this community,” she said. “It’s rare to see people come together like in Issaquah … it’s a tremendous community to be a part of.”

Callahan has no fears for the Foundation under Jaech’s leadership.

“She is a talented and dedicated individual … [with a] big passion,” she said. “We will not miss a beat.”

Still, Jaech said that Callahan will leave a noticeable gap at the Foundation.

“I don’t think there has been a student in the last 14 years whose life [Callahan] hasn’t touched,” Jaech said.